LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – Thousands of peaceful protesters assembled in Lansing over the weekend. The 50501 movement organized a ‘Remove, Reverse, Reclaim’ protest that filled the Capitol lawn.
Nationwide, millions of Americans exercised their first amendment right to assemble and peacefully protest. The movement brought out state leaders and thousands of Michiganders.
Protesters spoke out against the actions of the Trump administration that aim to roll back social security, health care, medical research funding, and veterans’ benefits. Those are all things that former Senator Debbie Stabenow said are the responsibility of the federal government in her speech.
“There are things like building roads and bridges, there are things like researching cures to alzheimer’s or cancer, there are things that need to be done to protect our water, you can’t tackle the climate crisis by yourself,” Stabbenow said. “There’s some things you gotta do together that can’t be done by ourselves. There are things that we do together, and you know what we call that? Government.”
With Trump and his cabinet working to cut back on government spending, pushing mass deportations, and raising tariffs on countries formerly seen as allies, the Democrat speakers said the federal government is no longer filling the role it should.
Michigan’s Attorney General, Dana Nessel, said she’s prepared to sue Trump every time he acts in a way that harms Michigan or its people.
“Donald Trump has demonstrated he’s got no intention of abiding by the laws of this nation,” Nessel said. “This is our state, our country, our democracy, and we will not relinquish it to a wanna be dictator tyrant king.”
By 4 PM on Saturday, 25 speakers took to the Capitol steps, talking about being exhausted by current federal leaders but encouraging the crowd to never give up fighting for what they believe is right.
“You know this is not the time to give up. It’s not the time to put our heads down and hope it goes away because it’s not going to go away, not unless we make it go away.” Stabbenow said. “We are here because we know that saying nothing and doing nothing will guarantee that the American values we strive for, the democracy we have enjoyed and too often taken for granted, will be forever weakened or eliminated. That’s why we’re here.”
